


hide your head in the sand

by ichinoseharu (rinsousukes)



Category: Free!
Genre: M/M, so if you're here for that you can go on straight to chap 3, the entirety of the final chapter is porn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-12
Updated: 2014-07-18
Packaged: 2018-02-08 13:40:23
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 19,502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1943253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rinsousukes/pseuds/ichinoseharu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He smiles easily at Sousuke as he draws closer and then reaches out to nudge him in the shoulder with a fist. When Rin looks up through the curtain of his windblown fringe though, Sousuke’s eyes are dark and unfathomable.</p><p>He's looking right at Rin, and Rin can’t properly put words to it, but he feels a little like an errant fly caught in a spider’s web. It's unsettling.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Rin isn’t exactly sure what it is that makes the tiny hairs on the back of his neck stand up a little, but there’s an ominous sort of prickle on his skin and he just knows that someone’s intent gaze is on him. It’s made all the more strange by the fact that it’s seven in the evening and that the Samezuka courtyard is usually empty of students a good hour or two before this.

His step slows and stutters despite himself and Haru, who’s been keeping pace with him all this while, tilts a questioning glance in his direction. His expression must have looked more confused than he’d thought it’d been because Haru comes to a halt and tugs on the sleeve of Rin’s blazer to urge him to do the same.

When he opens his mouth to question Rin though, Makoto’s voice sounds from just beyond the school gates, where he’d gone on ahead with Nagisa and Rei.

“Haru! The last bus is here!” His worried face pops out from behind the brick walls just a second later and he throws a hasty smile and then a wave at Rin before gesturing for Haru to hurry with frantic hand movements. Rin thinks that the harried side of Makoto is surprisingly adorable and he grins back at him in acknowledgement before slapping a palm on Haru’s shoulder to propel him in the direction of the gates.

“I’ll see you Wednesday, Haru! Remember, I’m gonna even the score so you better come prepared.”

He lets a couple of sharp teeth show in the smirk that he flashes Haru and then waits for his usual denial of getting involved in anything involving times. But Haru is distracted, and he’s looking somewhere beyond Rin’s shoulder. His gaze is hard, the usual deep blue of his eyes suddenly cold and icy.

Rin is taken aback.

He can’t remember ever seeing this particular brand of vehement in Haru’s expression before, and especially not one that appeared at the drop of a hat. His curiosity is more than a little piqued, but when he turns his head to follow Haru’s gaze, all he sees are the hulking concrete structures of the auditorium and the buildings that flank it.

Wide shoulders and the bright white of the school blazer catch his eye right then though, and he smiles to himself. Sousuke had insisted on waiting by the courtyard while Rin walked the Iwatobi boys out, so that they could get back to the cafeteria to have dinner together.

He’s leaning against one of the pillars by the courtyard, and he cuts an imposing figure; or he would have, if Rin didn’t already know that he ironed his shoelaces and spent fifteen minutes every day on his ridiculous hair. He snorts to himself and then tries to motion to Sousuke and catch his eye and let him know that he’s almost done here.

Sousuke doesn’t meet his eyes though, and Rin’s mouth turns down at the corners in confusion. He looks a little off, Rin thinks, and then reminds himself to find out why later. When he turns back to Haru, he too, looks a lot more troubled than he had just a few seconds ago.

Haru steps forward and into his space, and his eyes flicker between Rin’s own and the curious spot behind him.

“Rin.” His eyes are serious and narrow and they scan Rin’s face for something. “Be safe.”

With that said, his palm comes down on the curve of Rin’s shoulder and he squeezes a little before turning one last hard glance behind him and then jogging to catch up to a now frantic Makoto.

Rin blinks a little at the decidedly uncharacteristic behaviour and tucks a few flyaway strands of hair behind his ear as he mulls it over in his head for a few seconds. Then, he snorts and pushes it to the back of his mind. It was just like Haru to say something cryptic just before he left. He’s undoubtedly on the same wavelength as him when it comes to swimming, but Rin is no Makoto and he’s a little too worn out this evening to work out the meaning of this particular brand of Haru-speak.

He watches the sleek black head disappear behind the gates and then sighs a little, stretching his arms up and into the sky, hearing a couple of joints pop satisfyingly. He turns on his heel and starts making his way towards Sousuke.

Practice hadn’t been particularly physically taxing today but he’s mentally exhausted just from analyzing Ai and Momo’s swim techniques and calculating in his head the little improvements they could make to better their times. He’d seated himself in the pool chair by the corner of the complex and written down every little detail that mattered in his notepad, running circles in his own head  and tugging on his hair until he’d quite frustratingly, hit a wall.

Sousuke had hoisted himself out of the pool then though (Rin hadn’t been able to stop himself from glancing up at his beautiful, powerful stroke every now and then), and approached Rin, prying the notepad and pen out of his surprised hands. Rin is a doer, everyone knows that, but Sousuke is probably the one who best realizes that he’s almost as much of a worrier, and Rin should’ve expected that he’d pick up on the troubled vibes that Rin had been giving out.

“You're going to get wrinkles if you keep that up.” Sousuke had flashed a tiny smile at Rin before he’d bent down in one swift motion, hoisted Rin over his left shoulder and strode leisurely to the pool’s edge, ignoring his protests and token struggles. When he’d tossed Rin a good few meters across and into the pool, Nagisa’s excited laughter and the muffled giggling of his underclassmen had inevitably followed.

A quick glaring survey of his surroundings had sent the little brats right back to business, though that quite predictably hadn't worked on Nagisa. Surprisingly enough, Haru had paused at the end of his lap to shoot an inscrutable glance first at Sousuke, and then at Rin, before kicking off again.

The practice session had taken a much more fun turn after that, and he’d shoved Sousuke’s head underwater in retaliation and then swum a couple of laps of butterfly with him before heading over to the lane beside Haru’s and as per usual, challenging him to first one race, and then another and another. Practice had ended before he’d realized it.

Now that he thinks about it, something had felt a little off throughout practice, but he can’t put his finger on it. Haru’s face had been as blank as ever, but from what Rin had learnt of his miniscule expressions, he’d looked almost disconcerted.

Now, he smiles easily at Sousuke as he draws closer and then reaches out to nudge him in the shoulder with a fist. When he looks up through the curtain of his windblown fringe though, Sousuke’s eyes are dark and unfathomable. His hand drops hastily from Sousuke’s shoulder to rest by his side and he stills.

Sousuke is looking right at Rin, and Rin can’t properly put words to the feeling, but he feels a little like an errant fly caught in a spider’s web. It's unsettling.

“Had a good chat with Nanase?” His voice is calm and low, but there’s an almost dangerous undercurrent to it, and a tiny, involuntary shiver runs down his spine. He moves to reply, but pauses and then snaps his mouth closed again, because something is telling him Sousuke isn’t expecting one.

He can’t decipher the tinge of darkness in Sousuke’s eyes and for moment he’s almost a little afraid; he brushes the stray feeling aside though, when Sousuke blinks once, twice, and then smiles warmly at him. His expression has cleared up, eyes gleaming their usual beautiful blue again and when he leans in and pats Rin on the shoulder, his touch is gentle.

 Rin shakes his head jerkily to clear his mind and thinks to himself that he must be more tired than he’d initially thought if he’d imagined _that_ whole debacle.

“Left my phone and wallet in the room.  Come with me to get it? We’ll grab dinner after.” Sousuke’s lips are so close to his left ear that he can feel the moist warmth of his breath and Rin shivers again, a little confused at the proximity, but amenable to the suggestion nonetheless.  

When Sousuke walks on ahead and then turns back and grins at him, Rin knows what’s coming almost immediately.

“Race you!” He shouts before Sousuke can even get the words out, and he dashes past him and then turns right into the corridor leading to the dormitories. Strangely enough, he notices that he can almost physically feel it when Sousuke starts behind him.

Rin’s headstart only lasts for a few seconds; he’d expected nothing less from Sousuke.

From the corner of his eye, he spots Sousuke’s shadow on the linoleum floor, creeping closer and closer to his own with every second that passes. He can’t tear his eyes away as it steadily overlaps with his own and Rin finds that his heart is racing not only with exertion now, but also with a peculiar sort of thrill. They've done this a million times before, but something is different today.

His footfalls echo loudly in the empty corridors but Sousuke’s are surprisingly muted for someone of his build; he’s almost predatory in all his speed and silence.

“Rin.”

Rin trips a little over his own feet when Sousuke’s voice sounds right by his ear, raspy and not nearly as winded as Rin would have liked it to be. He quickly gains his bearings again though, and puts on a burst of speed, expecting Sousuke to loop around him and dash forward.

He doesn’t. Sousuke must have slowed his pace deliberately and he’s close enough now that Rin can feel the heat of him bleeding into his back and shoulders; he seems to have no intention of taking the opportunity to leave Rin behind.

“Rin.” He repeats, and his voice is darker this time. “I think you should run.”

It sounds more like an order (a threat) than a suggestion.

The muscles in Rin’s thighs twitch involuntarily and all the remaining exhaustion from practice and bleeds out of him in a single electrifying second. His breath quickens and he almost wants to skid to a halt and turn around to face Sousuke, ask him what his deal is.

But he chances a glance to the right and Sousuke’s face is looming right behind him, eyebrows drawn down sharply, eyes intense and a particular kind of smile that Rin has never seen before, gracing his lips.

In a second, he decides. He turns back, wills his legs to last just a little longer and then makes a dash for it down the hallways, towards the sign that points to the dormitory entrance. He doesn’t have to turn to know that Sousuke is right on his heels. He can’t hear his breathing, his footsteps are barely audible above the thumping of Rin’s blood in his own ears, but Rin somehow _feels_ his presence acutely.

Rin skids to a halt as he enters the first floor of the dorms and with an abrupt turn, makes a beeline for the stairs at the end of the corridor. He brings up his hand and swipes the back of it over his forehead, where sweat is steadily forming is sliding down into his eyes, blurring his vision momentarily.

The climb up the stairs is nerve-wracking. With every step that he ascends, he can hear an echoing footfall from behind him and Rin doesn’t even pause to wonder _why_ he’s running, he just knows he should.  For a single exhilarating second, he lets himself wonder what would follow if he slows down and gets caught by Sousuke, and the way his blood thrums and sings at the thought of that disconcerts him.

Right then two students, dressed casually in shorts and tank tops, presumably heading down to the canteen, come bounding down just as he turns the corner in the stairwell. His heart leaps and for a moment, as his arms are pinwheeling desperately, he thinks he’s going to take a tumble down the entire flight of stairs and break a limb or two. Luck must have been on his side though, because a hand grabs his upper-arm lightning quick and then yanks him back upright. He heaves a sigh of relief and swallows, trying to calm his frazzled nerves.

“Oh damn, sorry about that, buchou!” The voice is familiar, and when he looks up, Nakagawa, a second year from the swim team, is grinning sheepishly back at him. His friend, whose face is unfamiliar, holds up an apologetic hand and scratches the back of his head when Rin turns a cursory glance at him.

“No, no, it’s fine, I was going way too fast anyway.” Rin tries for a reassuring smile, but it probably translates into a grimace; he’s still unsettled, his nerves are all on edge, and he can only imagine what must be running through Nakagawa's head as he takes in the sight of a sweating, panting Rin curiously.

The sound of footfalls from behind him gets louder and when Nagakawa’s eyes dart behind him, the corners of his lips start to twitch up again.

“Yo, Yamazaki-san!” He greets cheerfully. There’s no response following from Sousuke though and Rin notices that the kid freezes up almost immediately after, eyes widening a little and hand dropping from where it’d been gripping Rin’s arm, as if he’d been burnt.

“Uh, yeah, okay then.” He mutters a little nervously, eyes darting between Rin and Sousuke quickly and then moving to lock with his friend’s. “We’ll just see you at swim practice on Wednesday.”

He lays a palm on his friend's back and pushes him forward and then the both of them are rushing down the stairs without a goodbye. Rin wonders a little perversely what sort of expression Sousuke must have been sporting to send a friendly guy like Nakagawa scurrying off like a spooked rabbit. He's not sure he wants to find out himself.

And then he picks up on the almost eerie silence and realizes abruptly that he’s alone with Sousuke in the empty stairwell now. He hears the muted sound of footsteps coming up the last couple of stairs and his fingers twitch nervously as they come to a halt right behind him.

He doesn't turn around.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've already got a sappy fic in mind for next time, but for now, after episode 2, have some yandere Sousuke. Sousuke in Free!ES is most definitely a closet sweetheart with the best of intentions (definitely my bby), so take this with a pinch of salt. 
> 
> Apologies for the the sloppy writing and yes, the title is a shameless rip off of that Beatles song. Next chapter will be up in a bit, but the rating might just be upped.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There’s a sinking feeling in his gut and he stubbornly tries to push away the thought, because acknowledging it would mean that that maybe it’s always been Sousuke who's known Rin through and through, and never the other way around.

He doesn’t know if it’s just his panicked mind projecting a little too much, but he thinks he can almost feel Sousuke’s warm breath on the exposed skin just behind his ear, and he balks. Sousuke should have said something by now. Laughed at him, told him the game was over and that Rin owed him a meal. But he’s deathly quiet and Rin’s mind races with infinite possibilities.

He hesitates for the barest of seconds, before leaping forward and scrambling up the last flight of stairs to the second storey, where their dorm room is. Sousuke’s distorted laughter trails behind him and echoes eerily in the walls of the stairwell, but Rin doesn’t stop to listen. He’s not sure what _this_ is, but he’s sure as hell that it it’s no longer a playful race reminiscent to the countless ones they’ve had in the past.

It’s only when he lopes down the carpeted corridor and spots the number “204” inscribed on the metal plate hanging on a door, that he searches his pockets and realizes what an utter fool he is. He’s evidently left his keycard in the locker room, when he’d tossed it inside his locker carelessly before practice had started. 

“Good going, Matsuoka.” He mutters to himself and allows himself to think a little dramatically, that the world (and his best fucking friend) must be conspiring against him

He stops in front of the door, and shoves his hands in the pockets of his uniform pants, panting from the exertion and dropping his chin to his chest.

He’s probably overthinking everything, Rin tells himself. Sousuke would get here and he’d tease Rin about how easily he'd gotten spooked and they’d be back to kicking at each other and wrestling to get into the room first. He’d probably just read too much into Sousuke’s expression; the guy could pull a mean bluff when he wanted to, after all.

He’s just starting to feel a little silly at getting so worked up over nothing when something heavy and solid crashes into his back, sending him flying face forward towards the wooden door. He squeezes his eyes shut and braces himself for the impact of his cheek ramming into the metal number plate, but his face bumps against warm skin instead.

When Rin cracks a single eye open, he finds his face pressed to the back of Sousuke’s hand. He must’ve moved it to brace against the door to shield Rin from the impact. 

“Caught you.” It’s only when he hears Sousuke’s husky voice right beside his ear that he takes notice of the length of his heated torso pressed up against Rin’s back, and he flushes a little, trying to shrug Sousuke off. It hadn’t just been Rin’s overactive imagination then; he really was acting strangely today.

Sousuke doesn’t budge though, not even when Rin starts to put up an earnest struggle. His efforts only serve to smush his nose and cheeks further into the back of Sousuke’s hand and all Sousuke does is press Rin right into the door to quell his struggles. 

“Oi, dumbass, what’re you doing! Get off.” Rin’s voice cracks embarrassingly midway through the sentence and his cheeks flush even more when he hears Sousuke's mocking laughter. When the laughter stops abruptly, Rin tenses. The silence that comes after is pregnant with anticipation and a strange sort of electricity.

“So, did you have a good time swimming with Nanase today? He teach you any new tricks?”

The question is so unexpected that Rin just gapes at the polished sheen of the wooden door for a second or two. He’s baffled and more than a little irritated at Sousuke bringing up the topic of Haru, of all people, as if he were in the middle of a casual hi-bye chat, and not actually pinning Rin up against his room door in the fucking general corridor, where anyone could just step out and see them.

“What the fuck are you going _on_ about, idiot? Let me go and open the door already!” Rin thrashes his limbs immediately after getting the words out, hoping to throw Sousuke off with the element of surprise, but Sousuke as always, is a step ahead. He brings his other hand up to grip one of Rin’s wrists tightly, a little too tightly, and then firmly presses it against the door, squeezing tightly one more time to prove a point.

“Shh, just answer the question, Rin.” Sousuke brings the sharp point of his chin down to rest on  Rin’s left shoulder and in another fluid movement, brings his hips forward, plastering Rin to the door completely.

Rin’s starting to feel jittery, and that same trapped feeling that’d taken over him earlier in the evening comes back to him now. The almost unbearable heat of Sousuke’s hard chest against his back makes his mind go a little fuzzy though, and the dangerous little thrill that’d started building in him while he’d been dashing down the corridors grows and festers.

“Ye-yeah. I had fun swimming with him. What about it?” He realizes almost immediately that it’s not the answer Sousuke had been waiting for (what had he been expecting Rin to say anyway, he wonders a little bitterly) because the grip on his wrist tightens to the point of pain. The sharp twinge brings involuntary tears to the corners of his eyes but he blinks them away immediately and goes completely still.

“Nanase, Nanase, Nanase. I wonder what it is about Nanase..” Sousuke’s muttering to himself now, voice troubled and furious, and Rin's mind is a muddle of confusion and helplessness. He still can’t figure out why they’ve ended up here, what Sousuke’s issue is, and he just wishes he’d come clean with him instead of pulling stunts like these. 

Anger fights its way through the jumble of emotions, and he turns his head and nips at the soft skin of Sousuke’s hand sharply. Ruby droplets well up from the spot immediately and Sousuke jerks his hand away violently, letting out a small pained noise. Rin’s face slams into the metal plate when the barrier of Sousuke’s hand is taken away and his cheek starts smarting, the ridges of the plate digging into his cheek and chin painfully.

It doesn't end there. Sousuke makes another displeased sound at the back of his throat and the tips of his fingers dig deep into the bone of Rin’s wrist and Rin can’t stop the pained tears from gathering and dripping down his cheeks now; neither can he help the hurt whimper that escapes his throat.

“That hurts!” His voice sounds small and shaky even to himself.

There’s a sharp intake of breath from behind him and Sousuke’s grip loosens before he releases the grip on Rin’s wrist all at once.

A moment of complete silence follows, interrupted only by his own occasional sniffling and Sousuke’s heavy breathing. When hands come to rest on his Rin’s upper arms, he flinches away instinctively; the touch is warm and gentle this time though, nothing in it even remotely resembling the vicious grip he’d had on Rin just moments before.

Rin finds himself turned to face Sousuke, but he stubbornly keeps his chin held to his chest, unwilling to let him see just how much he’d really been affected by the debacle. Sousuke lets out an almost pained noise though, and Rin can’t help himself from taking a quick glance at his face.

He’s taken aback when he sees Sousuke’s features scrunched up in remorse and self-loathing.  This time, when his fingers come up to drag over Rin’s wet cheeks gently, Rin doesn’t protest, just holds his gaze and swallows noisily.

“I’m so sorry, Rin.” His voice is sweet and soft and laden with apology and Rin almost balks at how he sounds like a completely different person.

“I’m so sorry.” He repeats, and then stoops a little to rest his forehead against Rin’s own tenderly. He scoops up Rin’s still smarting wrist with a tentative hand and caresses the red skin with his thumb. “Does it hurt still?”

Rin can’t find his voice for a few seconds because Sousuke’s eyes, limpid, and shining the colour of the sea on a sunny day, are so incredibly close to his own.  They’re contrite and filled with worry and there's a terrible ache in Rin’s chest: he likes them better when they’re sparkling with humour and warmth.

“No.” He lies, acutely aware of the the tiny heated space between their faces. “No, it doesn’t hurt. It’s alright, I’m fine.”

Sousuke doesn’t break his gaze away when he brings Rin’s wrist up between them and presses it to his lips. His mouth is warm and chapped and Rin’s breath catches in his chest at the intimacy of the contact.

Sousuke murmurs something that Rin can’t quite hear but he can acutely feel his lips moving against the sensitive skin of his wrist to form the consonants of his name. He shivers, and Sousuke moves away a little to look Rin in the eyes again.

“Rin, you know I only want the best for you, right?” He whispers, and Rin nods dumbly at him, his eyes flickering between the blue of his eyes and his mouth, as it moves almost hypnotically.

“You deserve only the best, but Nanase doesn’t understand that.” Rin starts to nod again in agreement, but then his mind registers the use of Haru’s name and he snaps out of his daze to glare at Sousuke.

“What the fuck-“ Rin swallows when his voice gets caught in the back of his dry throat and starts again. “What the fuck does Haru have to do with anything?”

When a hint of the hardness from before enters Sousuke’s eyes again, he clamps down on his bottom lip with his teeth, hoping fervently that he hadn’t just flipped Sousuke’s crazy switch again. He feels a little mean once the thought enters his mind, but the stubborn part of him argues that he’s entitled to at least the mental name-calling, especially after the guy had just manhandled him and thrown him off of his game. He still can’t wrap his head around it.

This is the same Sousuke he’d walked to school with when the leaves were gold and red and littered all over the streets, the same Sousuke he’d pestered and wheedled into learning the butterfly so that he’d have a swimming buddy, and this is the same Sousuke who’s always been Rin’s very own safe harbour. And he’s never ever seen this side of him in all the time he’s spent with him.

There’s a sinking feeling in his gut and he stubbornly tries to push away the thought because acknowledging it would mean that that maybe it’s always been Sousuke who's known Rin through and through, and never the other way around.

This Sousuke is different and vaguely dangerous and he makes him feel jumpy and nervous and _nowhere_ near safe. There’s a strange sort of magnetism in his aura though and Rin tries his best to tamp down on the part of him that’s heady with a completely different kind of tension.

“Haru, huh.” Sousuke’s eyes narrow and he laughs again, low and utterly unamused. “Maybe I should start calling him that too.”

“Haru.” He sounds as if he’s testing his name on his tongue, but it comes out all wrong. “What’s so amazing about Haru?”

“Better question is,” Rin snaps back, forgetting once again to tread gently with this Sousuke. “What’s your problem with Haru?”

Sousuke lets out a frustrated whoosh of air through his nose and it ticks Rin off even more, because what the fuck did he have to be irritated about? If there was anyone here who had the right to act out, it was Rin.

“Can’t you see he’s bad for you?” Sousuke pauses and a frighteningly intense expression passes over his face. “Bad for your swimming. For your future. He’s dragging you down with him.”

Rin is starting to comprehend the direction this conversation is heading in, but there’re still a few puzzle pieces lying out of place and he chides himself for not noticing the odd tension that'd been present between Sousuke and Haru that afternoon. Or ever since they’d run into each other again, when he really thinks about it.

He’s torn between affection at the fact that Sousuke has given this much thought about Rin’s future and indignation that he still felt that he had to intervene to protect Rin. Rin is a big boy now, the captain of an entire team, and he sure as hell can fight his own battles (though he can’t seem to find any battle in this particular issue). Sousuke still hasn’t grown out of that habit of protecting him, Rin thinks to himself, but he really can’t blame the guy either.

He remembers the tears blurring his vision and the way his heart had thumped almost right out of his chest in third grade when Kei and his unusually tall lackies had cornered Rin by the fence in their school yard. Kei (a fucking bully was what he had been, really) had reached out to tug harshly at strands of Rin’s hair.

“What’s with the long hair, Rin-Rin? Trying to find a _boyfriend_?” The brats flanking him on either side had burst into uproarious laughter, and Rin wanted to fling a witty insult back at him or sock him right in his ugly jaw, he really did, but his hands and feet had become frozen and he hadn’t been able to help the tiny scared sobs from hitching in his throat. He’d felt truly pathetic and he remembers wondering for the first time, if maybe he'd deserved the name-calling and teasing after all. What kind of boy couldn't even stand his ground without breaking into tears?

Then, Kei had balled his hand into a fist and the expression he’d been sporting had been far too cruel to belong on a nine year old boy’s face.

Rin had flinched and squeezed his eyes shut, bringing his forearms up over his face in a final sort of defensive gesture.

But only a pained yelp followed, and then the thump of a body hitting the ground. Rin had cracked an eye open to peer out through the gap between his arms and he’d spotted Kei on the ground. He didn’t look to be in pain, so he must’ve just been grabbed and flung to the ground. Rin had just barely caught his two buddies making a run for it, disappearing round the corner, with the limited vision that he had.

“Matsuoka. Are you okay?” From between the tiny gap, concerned shiny blue-green eyes had peered into his own, and Rin had flinched back again before he hesitantly brought his arms down.

“Yamazaki.” He’d sighed in relief, the panic slowly bleeding out of him. He’d remembered the tears streaking his cheeks a little too late though, and Sousuke had handed him a neatly wrapped blue handkerchief.

“Here,” he’d said, smiling at Rin, “You can use this, my mum just bought it yesterday.”

“T-thanks.” He’d taken the square fabric from his hands and passed it roughly over his cheeks and eyes.

Rin had known Sousuke was in his class, but he’d never quite conversed with him before. Sousuke’s eyes had always seemed serious and focused, almost too focused for a third grader and Rin had been a little scared to approach him, lest he cast Rin off as a slacker, or more terrifyingly, a _girl._

He’d been there then though and he’d come to Rin’s defense even though he barely knew him, and Rin had been so grateful to him and so overwhelmed by the entire debacle that tears had started welling up in his eyes again.

Kei, who’d managed to get himself upright, had sneered at the both of them while backing away.

“Well, well, Yamazaki coming in to save his precious girlfriend. Both of you better watch your backs.”

Sousuke had turned sharply and Rin hadn’t been able to catch the expression on his face, but that had all it had taken for Kei to trip over his own feet and dash away.

“Why’re you crying again, Matsuoka?” Sousuke had turned back to him and asked a little worriedly upon the sight of Rin’s fresh tears.

“Nothing, nothing!” He’d dabbed at them with the crisp, clean-smelling edges of the handkerchief and then grinned at Sousuke sunnily. “Na, Yamazaki, you wanna be friends?"

Sousuke had grinned right back at him, and he’d looked like a completely different person then, eyes sparkling and mouth stretched wide to reveal the single gap in his front row of teeth.

“I thought we were already friends, Matsuoka.” He’d held his fist out in front of him, positively beaming at Rin, and Rin had knocked his own into it, the both of them putting their heads together and giggling.

He can’t remember ever straying too far from Sousuke after that day. Until sixth grade, that is, but dwelling on the events after that only makes the ache in him fester, so he doesn’t.

Now, he looks at those blue-green eyes, and he sees the same undiluted worry that was present seven years ago, shining through. He reminds himself that this is _his_ Sousuke after all, and if Rin doesn’t know him as well as he thought he did, he’ll just have to suck it up and start right from the beginning: he’ll learn every single thing there is to learn about him.

He wants to find out why the topic of Haru hits such a nerve for Sousuke, wants to know why he feels like he has to offer protection when Rin can’t see a threat looming anywhere, but more than anything, he wants to let Sousuke know that Rin is not going to drift away from him again, that Sousuke doesn’t have to hold on so tightly, because this time, Rin is holding right back onto _him_ , and he’s in no hurry to let go.

His uninjured hand comes up of its own accord and moves to feather over Sousuke’s chin and cheek before cupping his face gently. Sousuke’s eyes flutter a little and when he leans his cheek instinctively into the touch, Rin has to duck his head to hide the tenderness that must be showing clear as day in his eyes and smile. 

“You know how important this year is for me.” He starts, and Sousuke’s eyes are barely slits now, and even though he looks content nuzzling into Rin’s palm, Rin can tell he’s listening to every word intently.

“I’m going to get scouted before anyone else, just wait and see, nothing’s gonna distract me from that.” As an afterthought, he smirks at Sousuke and adds: “Sure as hell would have been scouted before _you_ if I’d stayed in Japan.”

Rin feels, more than hears the rumble of Sousuke’s laugh, genuine and happy this time, and Rin thinks to himself how much he prefers this laughter to the cold, almost cruel one from before. 

He makes up his mind and bulldozes on.

“Listen.” He brings a finger up between their faces to wag at Sousuke admonishingly, but when Sousuke just lunges forward playfully to bite at it, he jerks it away and brings it up instead to flick him on the forehead, laughing. Sousuke just watches him with that exceedingly fond look in his eyes and eventually, Rin has to look away, cheeks flushing and laughter dying out.

“Listen,” he starts again, “I don’t know what your deal with Haru is, and believe me, I’d rather not know, but he’s my friend. I don’t need you guys to have tea parties together, but at least be civil to him.”

“For my sake?” Rin adds, when he watches Sousuke’s brows furrow slightly. He sighs and moves to smooth out with his fingers the distracting wrinkle that’s forming on Sousuke’s forehead. “You’re my best friend. And I want my best friend to get along with my other friends.”

Sousuke nods albeit reluctantly and opens his mouth, then closes it again. He looks conflicted.

“Rin. I’m sorry for doing that just now. You know I’d never hurt you, right?” His voice is pleading, and Rin can’t quite get the image of Sousuke’s vicious, dark eyes out of his head, but he hates hearing him sound so upset, so he smiles at him and shakes his head.

“Of course I do, idiot Sousuke. Forget about that.”  When he reaches up to ruffle Sousuke’s hair, Sousuke lets him, but he laughs and squirms away when Rin starts tugging at the black strands. Rin leans back against the door and just looks at him for a few seconds, taking in the crinkled corners of his eyes and the way a few strands of his hair stuck out at the sides stubbornly.

The sound of two doors opening simultaneously somewhere down the hallway reaches Rin’s ears then though, and he jumps. He’d completely forgotten that they’d been having that entire conversation out in the hallway where anyone could have heard them.

He cringes and quickly slips his hand between them to reach into the left side pocket of Sousuke’s uniform pants. Sousuke draws in a sharp breath when Rin feels around for the card key desperately, and it’s only after he comes across the sharp plastic edges and moves to pull the card out that he hears the clearing of a throat first and then raucous cat calls.

“Don’t get him pregnant, Yamazaki!”

“Couldn’t even wait till after dinner, eh, eh?”

Rin still can’t believe this is happening. He yanks his hand back out of Sousuke’s pocket and watches in a daze as the group of four (three of them he recognizes as notorious troublemakers) pass them by. The three fucking punks hoot and holler as they sidle past them and one of them even reaches out to slap Sousuke on the back. The impact shoves him further into Rin, and Rin finds his nose buried in the sweet-smelling warmth of his shoulder.

He spots the bespectacled boy who’d most probably been the one to clear his throat in his line of vision. He’s from their homeroom class. Kanzaki, or Kanaki, or something, Rin hadn’t quite bothered to learn his name.

He’d always wondered what a quiet and hardworking kid like him was doing hanging around punks like that. Kanzaki’s face is beet red now though, and his mouth is a confused and vaguely distressed moue. He's probably having a crisis over seeing two boys in such a compromising position right in front of his eyes, and it's probably twice as surreal for him because the two boys are _Sousuke and Rin._ Rin wonders how he's ever going to face him in class again.

Sousuke had barely even budged upon hearing the ruckus though and he just watches them pass silently. Rin shoves his face further into Sousuke's shoulder to hide the way it must be flushed by now and wonders again how the hell he’d gotten himself into this situation.

Cool hands pry the keycard from his fist though, and he hears the little beep that sounds as the door’s unlocked. Then there’s a hand on his waist that pulls him forward and off of the door just before it clicks open behind him, and he's walked backward into the room, face still hidden in Sousuke's blazer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'M SORRY, I'm a lying liar who lies: this is gonna be 3 chapters instead of 2 because I couldn't resist adding porn in the third one. Haven't started on the porn yet, so next chapter will be up in a couple of days.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Even as he dips his head to hide his eyes and brings a hand up to grip at the left side of his chest through the fabric of his blazer, he can’t understand why he’s so upset at the idea of Sousuke in bed with someone else, or even worse, Sousuke in love with a beautiful, soft-spoken girl who’d be all coy smiles and comforting touches and nothing at all like Rin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My hand slipped and I ended up with 13,000 words of badly written fluff/porn. I'm so sorry. I realized that this entire story was just an excuse for me to write this chapter.

Rin resists a little, pressing his face stubbornly into the crisp fabric of Sousuke’s blazer when he brings his hands down to grip his upper arms and gently pry him off. He’s not ready to face him just yet.

The blood in his cheeks is apparently here to stay, and he curses his pale skin once, twice, and then wonders if Sousuke can feel the heat of his cheeks on his shoulder through the smooth, slippery fabric. He hopes not.

He thinks his quota for humiliation has been fulfilled for the day (or the whole fucking academic year, if he’s being honest here), and he can only pray to any benevolent gods that might be listening for Kanzaki to keep his prissy mouth shut and convince his no-good punks of friends to do the same.

Rin isn’t particularly ingrained into any of the major social circles in Samezuka (he’s been far too involved with the boys in Iwatobi, and has no time for anything beyond the heavy course modules and swimming practices) and he isn’t one of the popular kids by any stretch of the imagination, but neither is he such an optimist to believe that this incident would tide over without creating any ripples in the pond.

In a blind moment of panic, he wants to lash out at Sousuke, blame him for the entire incident, but he knows he’ll regret it when the humiliation and anger fades with time. After all, Rin had been as caught up in the moment as him, and he should shoulder equal blame.

He nudges his nose into the space between the folds of Sousuke’s jacket and takes a deep breath with some difficulty, letting the air out through his nose with a loud whoosh. Worry and mild panic still cloud his mind, but at least his chest feels a little less heavy now.

Sousuke’s here, he reminds himself, and if there’s one thing Rin has learnt in the five odd years he’s spent with him, it’s that Sousuke always knows what to do to make everything right as rain in Rin’s world again. He wonders now if things would have been different if he’d decided to stay back in Sano SC all those years ago and then his mind quite inevitably drifts and starts charting the possibilities if Sousuke had somehow decided to transfer to Iwatobi along with him. 

He sighs and puts a stop to the seemingly endless, contrived what-ifs forming in his head because he can already feel his heart clenching and a tiny lump starting to form in his throat. He’s here now, and he’s with Sousuke, and that’s all that matters.

Sousuke finally manages to pull Rin off, and he holds him at a respectable distance, eyes scanning Rin’s pink face first, and then languidly moving down to where the flush must have spread to his neck and chest. Rin is hardly expecting the little quirk of his lips – he’d thought that Sousuke would have been at least a mite concerned about being discovered and outed in an all-boys’ school of all places.

Then again, Rin thinks to himself, Sousuke isn’t likely to have been at the receiving end of a mean-spirited fist or suffered hurtful words being flung at him. That pleasure would solely belong to Rin. Sousuke had a certain sort of hard look in his eyes and an intimidating build that rarely made him the target of bullies, which was why he’d always inevitably ended up playing the role of protector rather than protected in the early days of their friendship.

He’d been jealous at first of the way his feathers never seemed to get ruffled (so completely different from his own tendency to cry and then laugh at the drop of a hat) but then reluctantly admiring and finally, by the final few months of fifth grade, grateful for his presence beside Rin’s own and almost reliant on it.

Still, he asks, “Aren’t you worried at all?”

“About what?” Sousuke’s eyebrows disappear up into his fringe.

“About wh-?” Rin can’t help his exasperation. “What do you think, you complete moron? About them! Catching us! Doing-”

“We weren’t doing anything in the first place, Rin.” Sousuke interrupts, and when Rin’s nostrils flare in irritation and embarrassment, he has the gall to reach up and pinch Rin’s nose tightly between his forefinger and thumb.

Rin knocks his fingers away irritably and when he spots just a tinge of smugness in Sousuke’s smile, he lets out a frustrated noise and _lord_ , this fucking guy really just knew how and when to push every single one of his buttons.

“Okay.” He sighs, and closes his eyes. “Okay, fine.”

When he opens them again, Sousuke’s halfway across the room, working on the buttons of his blazer. Rin’s eyes follow the motions of his fingers as they fluidly drift down his torso, exposing bits of his white undershirt with every passing second.

It’s hypnotic and Rin can’t tear his gaze away. Sousuke’s fingers are surprisingly nimble and fine-boned – completely at odds with his strong shoulders and muscled calves, and there’s always been an easy grace in the way he handles his chopsticks and writes his essays. He should’ve expected that that very grace would translate over to _other_ activities as well.

His eyes grow wide at the direction his thoughts are heading, and he shakes his head to dispel them. Sousuke doesn’t seem to have noticed Rin’s temporary indiscretions, thank god for that, and he just slides the unbuttoned blazer up and off of his shoulders, and then balls it up and tosses it across the room and into the pink laundry hamper.

His little fist pump, as the white blur disappears into the hamper, makes Rin laugh and shake his head fondly.

“Loser.” He says, and Sousuke just turns his head to grin at him playfully.

“Not gonna get changed for dinner?” He asks, the ropey muscles of his shoulders and upper arms straining as he crosses his arms and then brings them down to slide the white wife beater off of his torso. His abdominal muscles shouldn’t have to flex that much to take a fucking shirt off, did they? Rin’s sure his own don’t.

He moves to his bunk, flops down on the soft, newly laundered sheets and yawns.

“Gimme five.”

He presses his nose to the sheets and inhales the comforting smell of his lavender fabric softener for a couple of seconds. And then stretches his legs out and rests his chin on his forearms to watch Sousuke. Sousuke’s bare-chested now, and he moves to his desk in search of something. Rin can’t stop his gaze from drifting to his shoulders and then down to the strong planes of his back and his firm ass.

He barely notices as his tongue comes up to swipe against his lower lip, because his mind chooses to remind him now, of all times, of the way that body had pinned his own to the door just a couple of minutes ago. He wonders how his bare back would feel under the skin of Rin’s palms – would it be burning hot, would the skin be smooth and silky to the touch, would the contours of his muscles be hard and firm, and would Rin check himself into a _fucking_ asylum after this?

Get a grip, Matsuoka, he tells himself, but his eyes inevitably slide right back to Sousuke as he fishes out his wallet from the desk drawer and heads towards the wardrobe presumably for a change of clothes. The wallet slips and slides from his fingers though, and Rin snorts and starts laughing when Sousuke engages in a series of aborted, jerky movements in an effort to catch it before it drops.

Coins and cards spill from the leather wallet as it hits the floor and Rin’s still laughing above the noise – until he spots something entirely different lying innocently in the midst of all that mess. He gapes and blinks once, twice, but it’s still there, definitely not a figment of Rin’s imagination.

When Sousuke just sighs and shrugs at Rin in a ‘what can you do’ manner before bending down and reaching out to sort out the mess, Rin sits up abruptly and points a finger at him accusingly.

“You-“ He stammers, and then stops, because he really doesn’t know how to broach this topic.

Sousuke stands back up and turns to him with a raised eyebrow.

“Were you gonna finish that sentence or?” The fucking smartass.

Rin just lifts the same finger again and points at the innocuous looking square of metal foil resting between clusters of coins and shiny cards.

“Why the fuck do you have _that_?”

Sousuke looks down to where he’s pointing and when he looks back at Rin, he looks incredulous, his eyebrows having shot even further up his forehead.

“So that I can buy things? And eat?”

Was he trying to be difficult on purpose? Rin surveys his face and decides that no, he isn’t – not this time at least. He genuinely hadn’t realized that Rin had been referring to the bloody condom wrapper lying there casually; as if it even belonged in a high school student’s wallet.

“I meant the other thing. The c-“ His mouth refuses to let him form the word the first time. “The condom, the damn condom.” He gets out exasperatedly.

Sousuke eyes are drawn to the foil then, and some sort of understanding passes over his face.

“Why? Do you really not know what it’s for, Rin?” His voice is pitched lower now, and he stoops to pinch the condom foil between his fingers before righting himself again and making his way over to stand in front of Rin.

Sousuke’s wide shoulders block the room’s light out quite effectively, but Rin can clearly see that he’s holding up the blasted thing right in front of him and waving it around distractingly.

“Of course I know what it’s for!” Rin splutters, and he can feel his ears burning in renewed embarrassment at having to broach this topic with _Sousuke_ of all people. “But why do _you_ have it?”

“I’m a guy too, Rin, you know. Sometimes you seem to forget that.” He’s smirking now, and Rin doesn’t know if he wants to slap that thrice-damned expression off his face or kiss him until it disappears.

Thinking of Sousuke in situations where he’d be using the condoms is surreal, and his stomach flips uncomfortably at the idea. He tries to imagine Sousuke in his old high school, charming girls and taking them to love hotels, or worse, in Samezuka, picking up girls on the weekends and bringing them over to their room. It just doesn’t sit right with him.

The image he has of Sousuke, his best friend, is one of a dedicated swimmer, focused almost entirely on improving his time and a fiercely competitive person, both in his academics and his swimming, with no time for much else.

Now though, the novel thought of Sousuke the lover starts inching its way in and his traitorous mind provides him with a strangely realistic scenario of Sousuke in bed with a faceless girl with long curled hair, him braced over her sweetly curved form, palms resting on either of her head and wide shoulders almost completely hiding her from view. The Sousuke in his mind moves fluidly against her, muscles bunching and flexing alluringly with the effort of pushing forward and into the welcoming body, and he dips his head to take her lips sweetly, heavy breathing joining her cries in a melody that Rin doesn’t want to hear any more of.

He shakes his head stubbornly to get rid of the imagery, because his chest actually physically aches now, with misplaced sorrow and irritation and more acutely, a strange sense of loss. What had he to lose when he’d had nothing at all in the first place, he asks himself, and can’t seem to find the answer to that.

Even as he dips his head to hide his eyes and brings a hand up to grip at the left side of his chest through the fabric of his own blazer, he can’t understand why he’s so upset at the idea of Sousuke in bed with someone else, or even worse, Sousuke in _love_ with a beautiful, soft-spoken girl who’d be all coy smiles and comforting touches and nothing at all like Rin.

He must have been silent for a moment too long, because Sousuke’s palm comes down on his head now, and smooths his hair down gently. Rin’s breath catches when his cruel, cruel mind helpfully supplies him with the image of Sousuke doing this very thing to that nameless, faceless girl and it just makes the ache in his chest intensify. He bites his lip.

“Hey.” Sousuke retracts his hand and crouches down in front of him now, between Rin’s legs where they’re dangling from the bed and just barely grazing the floor.

His face is just a couple of inches below Rin’s and his eyes are worried. Rin feels guilty for making an issue out of something as trivial as this (he tamps down on the stubborn part of his mind that whispers that it isn’t trivial at all, not to Rin at least), but that doesn’t stop him from turning his face away. He doesn’t want Sousuke to look at him and realize how much of an irrational, emotional fool he really is, and how affected he is by something that by right, shouldn’t be any of his damn business.

After all, Rin had been the one who’d made the decision to leave his life at Sano and effectively, his immediate ties with Sousuke behind, and it’s Sousuke who has the right to be bitter about it, not Rin; never him. Sousuke probably has had a thousand first experiences (first loves, first kisses) that Rin has no knowledge about, and he should accept by now that his best friend from before is not the best friend that’s in this room with him now. Rin had made sure of that five years ago, when he’d packed his bags and left without a glance back.

“Rin.” Sousuke murmurs, interrupting the self-depreciating direction his thoughts are heading in, and Rin wants to hold on to the way he says his name so affectionately, lock it away in a box where he can listen to it over and over again. He selfishly wants to keep this side of Sousuke all to himself.

“You know, I was just joking.” One of Sousuke’s hands reach up between them, but then stutters, halts and then returns to his sides. Rin aches for the touch that could have been.

“No, no, it’s fine. Of course, you’d have them. You’re right, you’re a guy after all right? Just like me. You’ve probably had a whole bunch of girlfriends already.”

“Just like you?” Sousuke’s eyes narrow a little.

“I mean, not that I’ve had any. Not much of a life outside of swimming and all, you should know right?” His voice comes out small and unsure; not at all the jovial and light-hearted tone he’d been aiming for.

“But yeah, if you need me to clear out of the room any time, just let me know in advance. I can’t help you sneak her in or anything, but I can give you space.” He tries for a dry laugh, but it comes out sounding jagged at the edges and all wrong.

“No.” Sousuke’s reply comes, firm and loud and immediate, and Rin is shocked into meeting his eyes.

“There were no girls. There are going to be no girls.”

Rin is confused. He thinks maybe Sousuke is offering him the easy way out. He must’ve noticed the embarrassing melancholy in Rin’s countenance and the jealousy written all over his face, ugly and plain for all to see; must’ve decided to cut Rin some slack. He doesn’t want that. Doesn’t need Sousuke to tread cautiously around his own messed up feelings and insecurities and he sure as hell doesn’t need Sousuke to feel like he has to censor his words and play it safe around him.

“No, seriously, it’s fine. I told you I’m okay with it.” He tries for another grin and flashes a weak thumbs up at Sousuke.

Sousuke just pins him like a butterfly to the spot with that intense, blue gaze of his and then shakes his head a little wonderingly.

“Funny, because you don’t look okay with it at all.”

Rin is getting frustrated now, because he doesn’t know what Sousuke is trying to do here. There’s no way he could’ve missed the hints of the less-than-platonic feelings Rin is harbouring for him, and Rin wishes he’d leave it alone, instead of prodding and poking at the open wound. His intentions may not be malicious, but they make it all the more difficult for Rin to deal with the issue at hand anyway, and he rubs his hand over his eyes.

“What do you want me to say, Sousuke?” He asks tiredly. “That I don’t like it? I don’t. But it’s none of my business who you sleep with.”

Sousuke’s eyes glimmer a pretty aquamarine in the light, and he leans forward from where he’s crouching, bracing his forearms on his thighs and bringing his face a little too close to Rin’s own.

“What if I want it to be your business?” His voice is deep, deeper than it was just a minute ago, and the allusive tone makes a spark of hope start smouldering deep inside of Rin. He tamps it down furiously and scowls at Sousuke.

“Just come out and say what you have to say.” He snaps at him, unable to reconcile the feelings of hope and disappointment that are warring in his mind, and upset at both himself for being baited, and Sousuke for doing the baiting.

Sousuke smiles at him, the corner of his eyes crinkling unconsciously the way Rin absolutely adores, and then reaches up to trace a delicate finger up Rin’s cheek, before tucking a flyaway strand of red hair behind his ear. Rin’s face begins to burn because someone a mile away could have felt the tenderness in that little gesture.

Now that he _knows_ that Sousuke is more than just the friend whom all his deepest secrets lie with and the guy who has always had his back, he can’t seem to shake off the realization, as much as he tries. Light catches the metallic foil of the condom wrapper and makes it gleam, and Rin’s eyes are almost magnetically drawn to where it’s wedged between Sousuke’s fingers. It’s a torturous reminder of the fact that no matter how wise beyond his years he may seem at times, and how stoically he may hold himself, Sousuke is still a teenage boy. And now _Rin_ is hung up on that fact.

He curses and snaps his eyes back up to Sousuke’s face immediately, but Sousuke’s smile turns a little devious and Rin just knows  that the damage has been done.

Sousuke holds up the foil between them, slotted in between his index and middle fingers.

“I bought these in the hope that I’d be able to use them someday.” He hesitates, looks like he wants to say something else.

Rin glares at him, and waves a hand impatiently, motioning for him to get on with it.

“I was hoping it’d be with you.” The combination of those words and the way Sousuke’s blue eyes dip to the base of his throat and then slide up languorously to his mouth before meeting his own, makes Rin’s breath quicken and his pulse jump.

“Me.” He mumbles to himself. “Wants to use them with me.”

When the words really sink in, he can almost physically feel the thrum of his blood as it charges in from all parts of his body to pool in his cheeks.

Sousuke’s eyes widen in what looks like belated realization and they hurriedly come up to meet his own, before sliding away to the side again. Rin’s heart leaps a little when he sees the pink tinge to his cheeks. He’s not been blessed to see that many times before, and he can feel a smile tugging at his lips because the sight is curiously adorable. He wants to touch the red tinted skin, feel for himself if it’s as soft and heated as he thinks it would be.

Sousuke hastily backpedals.

“Rin, not that I meant that I just want to use them with you.  Of course, I do, but I mean, that’s not the only thing – You don’t have to do that, I’d never ask that-“

His flustered succession of words halts as quick as it began and then Sousuke just sighs and moves to hoist himself onto the bed beside Rin, nudging his knee against Rin’s thigh insistently. When Rin turns to face him, he rests his chin on his palm and aims an exasperated look at him.

“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?” There’s a hint of self-depreciation in his tone, but his eyes are amused and long-suffering and Rin can’t help but break out into little snorts of laughter. Sousuke joins in and Rin pauses to just _look_ at him because he loves how when Sousuke’s genuinely pleased, he giggles high and loud, completely unselfconscious of himself and all the more endearing for it.

His face is open and light years happier than Rin’s seen in the past couple of weeks and he surely can’t be blamed for leaning forward and gently smoothing his thumb over the adorable little crinkles forming by his left eye. Sousuke’s laughter dies out, and Rin mourns the sound a little, doesn’t know when he’ll be hearing it again.

He shifts up onto his knees and moves forward a little awkwardly on the springy mattress until he’s leaning over him, just bare inches away from Sousuke’s face, looking down into those impossibly blue eyes.  They look back at him so earnestly, as if Rin somehow holds all the answers to the universe. Rin would give them all to him if only he had a clue himself.

His hand moves to smooth over his silky eyebrows first and then further up to card through the thick, soft hair and Sousuke sighs, soft and sweet, nuzzling his head into the touch and moving forward just a bit more to rest his nose on the sharp point of Rin’s collarbone.

An overwhelming wave of fondness washes over him and he uses the hand entwined in the black strands to push Sousuke’s face further into the dip between his collarbones and folds himself around his form almost protectively, arms looping around the broadness of his bare shoulders and chin coming to rest on the crown of his head. When he nuzzles into the softness of his hair and inhales deeply, he smells lemon.

“Been using my shampoo, haven’t you?” His words are muffled. He regrets asking the question almost immediately because when Sousuke answers, his warm lips move distractingly against the thin skin stretched over his collarbones.

“Hmm, yeah, s’nice.” His voice is sleepy and soft and one of his hands comes up to cling onto the back of Rin’s blazer in an adorably needy gesture. Rin just hums in response and continues carding his fingers through his hair. He’s lulled by the repetitive motions almost as much as Sousuke is.

“Sousuke.” He starts evenly after a few minutes, but when Sousuke’s shoulders tense, he smooths over the warm skin with his palms until they droop contentedly again. He pushes his face into soft hair again, before taking a deep breath and steeling himself for what he’s about to say.

“Just now you told me that I didn’t look okay with _that_.” He lifts a hand and flaps it around for emphasis before realizing that Sousuke can’t actually see what he’s doing behind his back. He drops it back to the smooth skin of his shoulders. “I don’t think I’m really okay with that. I know I don’t have any right to- but I just-“

He lets out a frustrated breath of air through his nose again, wanting to continue, but not entirely sure how to. He freezes though, when he feels warm lips ghost over the centre of his chest and he’s just about to cast it off as an accident when he feels them press in again, harder, and then once more. They linger just a little longer each time, and Rin swallows. He feels his heartbeat picking up.

“Uh, that is, about that.” He blabbers, more than a little distracted by the movement and shape of Sousuke’s lips on his skin, but unwilling to admit it. “About that. Well, I don’t know what it is exactly, I shouldn’t care about anything except swimming, but then there’s you. I can’t stop thinking about it.”

Sousuke’s eyelashes flutter against his chest in a series of butterfly kisses. And that’s about all Rin can take.

“Fuck, it’s all your fault.” He growls, and clambers fully onto Sousuke’s lap, straddling his thighs in a clumsy, uncoordinated movement. “If you hadn’t dropped that , that _thing,_ I wouldn’t have had to think about all this.”

Sousuke lifts his eyes curiously to meet his own, but Rin’s own simultaneously drop to where the square foil lies by the side of the bed, undisturbed by the series of movements. His mind keeps going back to the damn thing and lord help him, he doesn’t know why.

“Rin.” Sousuke murmurs, voice husky now, eyes dropping to the foil much like Rin’s had just seconds ago. He doesn’t look half as sleepy as he’d seemed in Rin’s arms moments before. Looks more like a lion itching to pounce rather than the content, docile cat from before. “Rin, I want to. I want to.”

Rin doesn’t need to mull over it for more than a few seconds to realize what Sousuke means. He’s suddenly acutely aware of every single point of contact between them. The bare, smooth skin of Sousuke’s back and shoulders is positively burning into his own where his arms lay draped over him, even through the thick fabric of his blazer.  And when he shifts gingerly, he can feel the hard muscles of Sousuke’s thighs twitch under his own.

He feels hot all over, and that can’t be right, because he can still hear the table fan whirring away and the sound of the papers on his desk rustling in the ensuing breeze. He can’t tell if his pulse is racing because he’s nervous, or if it’s something else entirely.

When Sousuke’s hand brushes over his clothed back once and then inches under his blazer and undershirt slowly, he holds his breath. The calloused skin of Sousuke’s palm (he remembers the way Sousuke had gone all out with weight training in the gym yesterday, remembers warning him to tape his hands ahead, but he hadn’t listened) catches and drags against his lower back. His fingers slide up the over-heated skin so slowly, trace over the ridges of his spine, and then, once they reach the middle of his back, glide back down in a painfully tender caress to grip his waist. Rin lets out the breath he’s been holding in a loud whoosh. The skin of his back tingles and he can still feel the phantom touches.

His blazer is rucked up at the back and probably creased beyond belief, and his face is definitely an unattractive shade of red, but Rin can’t quite bring himself to care anymore because he’s here now with Sousuke, and Sousuke is touching him like he’s something precious, like he hasn’t touched anyone before like this. Wishful thinking maybe, but Rin wants to hold on to it.

“Rin, Rin.” Sousuke’s chanting his name like it’s a prayer, and Rin lowers himself down from his knees, resting his entire weight on Sousuke’s thighs instead. He has to look up at him now again, and his arms strain with the effort of being looped around the breadth of his shoulders, but he doesn’t want to let go. Not now that he’s felt the addictive, heady warmth of his skin.

Sousuke’s eyes lock with his own, and then he’s dipping his head slowly, giving Rin ample time to move away if he wants to. Rin is having none of it. He moves his hand from Sousuke’s shoulder blade to the back of his neck to tug him down sharply and then slides his mouth over his.

He’s loath to admit it even in the privacy of own mind lest Sousuke catches wind of his thoughts, but this is about as much as he knows on this topic. Rin’s never particularly been embarrassed to admit that he has near to nil understanding of girls (or boys for that matter) and sex, but he’s suddenly conscious of it now in the face of Sousuke’s experience.

Sousuke’s lips are soft and warm though, and kissing him feels good, makes his fingertips tingle and his chest warm, so he slides his palm from the back of his neck to tangle in his hair again (he’s getting addicted to the silky softness of it), lets his eyelids droop shut and melts into the warmth of his chest.

Just as he’s getting comfortable though, something warm and wet swipes over his lips and Rin snaps his eyes open. Blue eyes, which’d probably been watching him all along, twinkle deviously at him from just a hair’s breadth away, and when Rin lets his mouth gape a little in surprise, Sousuke’s tongue slides in smoothly.

Everything is suddenly exponentially more intense, and Sousuke’s tongue is hot and wet and sweeping around his mouth with what looks like a purpose. Rin’s stunned and his lips freeze, but it doesn’t seem to matter, because Sousuke just cups his jaw with a rough palm and tilts his head to the left a little before licking further into his mouth.

Rin’s mind is just white static noise at this point. His whole body is unbearably hot, and when Sousuke’s tongue brushes over his own, licks at the inside of his cheek and then comes back to twine around his own, he registers someone moaning almost desperately. It takes him a couple of seconds to realize that it’s him, but he’s too far gone to feel embarrassed.

Sousuke doesn’t seem to mind. His eyes remain open and rove intently over his cheeks and his hair and eyes, and his fingers are five distinct points of heat on his jaw and cheeks. Rin jumps a little when his other hand, which had been resting innocently thus far on the bare skin of his waist slides around to his belly and rubs heated circles into it. His abdominal muscles twitch sporadically at the sensual touch, and something hot and urgent pools in his lower belly.

Sousuke’s tongue is now mapping out the pointy ridges of his teeth and Rin’s starting to feel self-conscious with the way he’s so intently licking over them. He’s just about to pull away to avoid an unfortunate incident involving his way too sharp teeth when the tongue in his mouth catches and snags on his left incisor just the slightest bit. It’s enough. Rin can taste the tinge of copper and he pulls away hurriedly, guilty and worried.

It’d taken him a few years to completely come to terms with his strangely pointed teeth: he’d had to pretend like the offhand comments thrown at him by his teachers and his dentist in his Australian middle school about his newly sharpening teeth hadn’t bothered him, and he’d put up with his fair share of bullying from the local students, who’d seemed to find his mouth a circus attraction.

He hasn’t particularly worried about them since he’d come back to Japan for high school, but the lurking insecurities come to light again now, and he wonders if Sousuke is put off by his teeth. Wonders if he’ll cringe at the idea of sticking his tongue into Rin’s mouth again. He bites his lower lip hard in penitence, feeling the skin heat and swell under the pointed tip of his tooth before letting go.

Sousuke’s fingers come up between them then, and lift to his mouth.

“Why’d you pull away, Rin?” His voice is gravelly in a way Rin has never heard before, and it sends a jolt of electricity straight down his spine, makes the heat in his belly grow.

He doesn’t wait for Rin to reply, just uses his thumb to pull his bottom lip down, exposing a row of teeth. Rin recoils when he slips that very thumb into his mouth, but Sousuke is insistent, pushing his thumb forward until Rin eventually parts his lips to take it in. When he looks up at Sousuke again, his eyes are almost all pupil, with only a thin ring of blue encircling the black, and he’s breathing hard. It takes him aback.

Sousuke’s thumb slides around the slippery inside of his mouth before it carefully feels around his lower row of teeth. Rin wants to protest, but Sousuke’s eyes are so heated and intense that he can’t help but let his mouth fall open a little wider. Sousuke takes the opportunity to slide his index and middle fingers in too, and they move straight for his teeth, tracing over the sharp points almost reverently.

“God, Rin. Your mouth.” His voice is a low, unrecognizable growl. He curses again. “I love your teeth. Do you even know what you look like right now?”

Rin doesn’t, but he can make a guess. Sousuke’s words and heated response have put his doubts to rest just for now, and he decides to move this just a notch further. He closes his lips firmly around Sousuke’s beautiful fingers and sucks them further into his mouth. And smirks around them when he hears the resulting groan, loud and uninhibited.

Sousuke’s eyes have fallen closed for the first time, but then Rin licks at the pads of his fingers and his eyelids lift languorously, revealing beautiful blue inch by inch. Rin feels accomplished and even though his jaw aches a little and there’s spit trickling down the side of his mouth (he probably looks like something out of a gag film) the raw need in Sousuke’s face gives him enough incentive to keep going. Sousuke’s fingers twist, trace over his teeth one last time and then pull out from his mouth. His eyes though, remain fixed on Rin’s mouth.

“Fuck.” He swears, shakes his head a little and shifts his eyes away. The colour is high on his cheeks. Rin’s thrilled at hearing the word escape from his mouth because while Sousuke is by no means a prude, he doesn’t have the habit of generously peppering his conversations with expletives like Rin does. It makes it all the more rewarding when Rin is able to pull them out from him.

Sousuke brings his spit-slick fingers to first shove aside the collar of his blazer and then rub gently over the skin at the side of Rin’s neck. Rin should be disgusted, those fingers had just been in his mouth and are coated with his own saliva after all, but the touch is sensuous and fleeting and nothing prepares him for when Sousuke dips his head and latches on with teeth and tongue to the same spot that he’d caressed.

Rin clutches at the back of his head with both palms almost desperately and he’s so worked up now because he can feel every pinprick of Sousuke’s blunt teeth against his sensitive skin and the consequent swipe of that warm, wet tongue over the same spot. He’s grateful that he’d bought his uniform slacks a size bigger because he’s sure that he’d be pitching a very obvious tent otherwise.

Souuske trails his lips up to the soft skin under his ear and then kisses the spot gently, over and over again. It makes Rin shiver and he tilts his neck into the touch. Sousuke’s thumb is sliding back and forth on his belly and every single one of the sensations is somehow magnified. He feels like an oversensitive ball of nerves, completely and helplessly attuned to Sousuke’s touch and becoming steadily addicted to it.

He squirms on Sousuke’s lap, breathing loud and heavy in the still of the silence, and squeezes his eyes shut, trying to distract himself from the heat and definition of Sousuke’s chest, so close and alluring. He wants to put his hands on the bare skin, trace the lines of his abs, slide his mouth over the pebbled nipples: he wonders what Sousuke would do. Decides to find out.

He discreetly slides a hand from Sousuke’s shoulder to his chest and then maps out the skin just under his collar bones before tracing the lines of his defined pecs carefully. Sousuke’s lips and tongue still in their motions for just a second and Rin smirks to himself. The little pause is very telling, and it gives him the much needed confidence to pull away from Sousuke’s mouth, lean down and lay a line of soft kisses on the skin he’s just traced with his fingers.

Sousuke’s entire torso tenses and the hand resting on his belly clenches and unclenches in anticipation. Rin doesn’t want to disappoint. He licks at the skin just above the dusky nipple and then very cautiously nips at it with his teeth. The reaction is immediate and Sousuke’s surprised groan is so needy and loud that Rin’s eyes widen. He does it again and again, until the spot is reddened and sore, and Sousuke’s fingers on his belly are trembling just a little now, he can tell.

He’s not entirely surprised that Sousuke likes to be bitten (after all, he’d seen his reaction to his teeth just a while ago) but it still excites him tremendously and he’s already leaning in to suck a pebbled nipple into his mouth. Sousuke’s fingers seize and when they move to his waist again, the grip is tight and desperate.

Rin drinks in every single one of the little, almost unnoticeable noises that Sousuke is making and he carefully runs the edge of a tooth across the pink skin of his nipple.

“Nghh. Rin!” When Rin looks up, mouth slick with saliva and gaping open to reveal the sharp points of his teeth, Sousuke is gazing right back at him and he looks utterly destroyed. His eyes are blown wide, cheeks flushed and his eyes almost automatically drift down to Rin’s mouth, and then fix on to it intently. Rin, still riding on the wave of confidence from before, sucks his bottom lip into his mouth and chews on it a little, letting it spring free only when it’s hot and sore and in all likeliness, cherry red.

“You-“ Sousuke starts, eyes snapping up to his own, but he sounds distracted and his gaze gets drawn back to his mouth in just a matter of seconds and Rin feels warmth swell in his chest and belly because he’d never imagined that Sousuke (Sousuke who probably had girls in his previous high school still heartbroken over his transferring out, who definitely had at least one sappy love note left in his locker every week) would be so taken with _him_ , of all people.

He dips his head again to suck at the reddened nipple and this time, he’s no longer as cautious with his teeth. He sucks the hard point into his mouth and nips it at it gently, over and over, until Sousuke’s sounds steadily increase in volume. His big hand comes up to card through Rin’s hair, and Rin closes his eyes at the firm grip he gets on a few tufts of it. He pulls away with an obscene sound and observes in satisfaction that the entire area around his nipple is puffy and enflamed.

And then, he licks a line across Sousuke’s chest to reach his other nipple. His chest muscles are incredible, he thinks to himself, and runs an absent, wondering hand over the grooves and ridges of them, but hastily backpedals because he sounds just a little too much like a certain someone he knows. Gou’s voice echoes ominously in his head: “This is how everything starts, Onii-chan” and Rin cringes. Quickly latches on to Sousuke’s nipple; because if there’s someone he _really_ does not want to be thinking about while getting hot and heavy with Sousuke, it’s his baby sister. He’s sure that it’s the same for Sousuke, because she’s almost as much his little sister as she is Rin’s.

Sousuke’s fingers tug gently at his hair though, and he’s pulled away from where he’d been tonguing at his nipple.

His hand leaves his waist and Rin mourns the loss, but then he’s bringing both of them up to unbutton the pesky, hidden buttons of his blazer, and Rin doesn’t lift a hand to help him because there’s something so incredibly sexy about the way he’s almost ripping the buttons off in his hurry to unclothe Rin. When the last button pops free, Sousuke yanks the heavy material off of his shoulders and then eases his arms out of it, one at a time, before tossing it across the room.

It shows how far gone Rin is that he doesn’t even follow the motion with his eyes to check where it has landed.

Sousuke nearly rips his clingy white undershirt in his haste to pull it up and off and Rin laughs because it’s not every day that he gets to see him this fraught with tension. But then Sousuke’s palms come down on either sides of his bare waist and his thumb rubs up over the outline of his ribs, and it’s not that funny anymore. When Rin looks down, his stomach clenches almost painfully in arousal because Sousuke’s big hands span almost the entirety of his waist, and his thumbs touch from where they’re looping around from either side.

Sousuke eyes drop to follow Rin’s gaze and Rin watches as his mouth twitches minutely and his eyes darken even more (if that’s even possible) before he yanks Rin forward inch by inch until he’s forced to spread his thighs wide around Sousuke’s waist. When he shifts to adjust himself, Sousuke’s sudden groan drowns out his own little noise of surprise. Sousuke’s hard as a rock and he’s wedged between the cradle of Rin’s thighs. He can feel the heat of him on his inner thigh through two layers of fabric and if Rin wasn’t fully hard already, he sure is now.

He shifts forward desperately to try and rub up against the firm, hard planes of Sousuke’s stomach, but Sousuke’s hands tighten their grip on his waist and hold him still almost too easily. Inexplicably, this just makes him hotter, and he wonders if he’ll be able to lift up his shirt tomorrow and find ten finger shaped marks spanning the width of his waist. Wonders what excuse he’ll concoct to pass it off during the swim meet in the afternoon, if Sousuke will be distracted by it for the entirety of the two hours. Rin likes the idea of his branding gaze on him just a little too much.

Rin yelps though, when in an incredibly smooth maneuver, Sousuke tips them forward and onto the mattress. One of his hands quickly moves up to cradle the back of Rin’s head just before it hits the mattress and the bed bounces and creaks a little from their combined weight.

The first thing he notices is that everything is twice as intense now: Sousuke’s bare chest is pressed tightly against his own and his hips nudge up in between Rin’s thighs. The heat is unbearable at every single point that their skin touches and Sousuke’s weight is crushing him into the mattress, but Rin is getting steadily more desperate for something, _anything_. When he looks up, Sousuke’s face is close enough for the tips of their noses to brush, and he’s always been a work of art, but Rin’s breath catches in his throat at how unbelievably beautiful he looks when his eyes crinkle and he flashes a small, private smile at him.

He reaches up to trace that smile with a fingertip and Sousuke kisses it once before nudging it aside gently with his nose and leaning down to meet Rin’s lips with his own. This time, Rin’s mouth falls open immediately, and he holds Sousuke’s head steady with a palm before pre-emptively nudging his own tongue into the welcoming warmth of his mouth. Sousuke’s teeth are blunt and straight and Rin licks over them curiously and more than a little wonderingly. The slick, filthy noises of their kissing are loud in the absence of all other sounds.

Sousuke’s hands slide up Rin’s calves in a languid movement and come to rest at the waistband of his uniform slacks and Rin’s can’t help the noise of anticipation that escapes the back of his throat. Sousuke looks up to meet his gaze and then back down at the now obvious tent in his pants before pursing his lips mockingly and tapping his chin thoughtfully with a finger. Rin growls impatiently in response and then snaps his teeth in his general direction because Sousuke picks the worst of times to be a fucking tease and Rin is going to implode from arousal if he doesn’t do something this very moment.

It works though, because Sousuke laughs at him and then unbuttons his pants and drags the zipper down, inch by painful inch. When he slides them down his legs slowly, Rin shakes his head impatiently and lifts his lower body off the bed and kicks them off, quick as lightning. Then, he reaches for the zipper of Sousuke’s slacks. He gets the obtrusive material down and off of Sousuke in a record time and then balls up both of their pants and tosses them aside.

When he flops back onto the bed with a sigh, his eyes are drawn almost immediately to the bulge in Sousuke’s briefs. Of course he’d be wearing briefs. Skin-tight black briefs, stretched over the contour of his dick, and Rin can tell already that Sousuke is more than a little blessed in the size department. His mouth is suddenly dry as a desert and he swallows, unable to tear his gaze away from the shape of the head of his dick, straining through the thin material. Now that he’s actually here with Sousuke on the bed and they’re almost fully unclothed, he suddenly feels inexplicably shy and to his utmost horror, his cheeks start burning again.

‘No, no, no.’ He chants in his head and wills his blush away, but the reality is that he has zero knowledge of what to do from here, and his inexperience is probably, no, definitely going to ruin the mood and put Sousuke off. His embarrassment only heightens when he realizes that he’d chosen today of all days, to wear his ill-fitting, atrociously pink boxers: they’re made worse only by the little white shark patterns decorating them.

He slaps a palm over his eyes and groans. The next second though, Sousuke is prying his fingers off and-

“Sexy.” He murmurs, eyes drifting to his unfortunate choice of underwear and the bulge of his dick through it and then skating over his belly and his flushed chest before he leans down to kiss his the tip of his nose chastely. “Rin, you’re so sexy.”

 “Fuck you, Sousuke.” Rin’s ears are burning now, and he stubbornly looks away. He’s positive that Sousuke is making a joke at his expense. He must be.

Sousuke grips his chin between his fingers and turns his face back to him, and his eyes are boring into Rin’s own, burning bright with honesty and desire. Rin can’t look away. He thinks that if Sousuke told him to jump with that blue gaze holding his own, he wouldn’t even hesitate before asking how far.

Then, Sousuke lifts up and braces himself with a hand by Rin’s head. His free hand is sliding down Rin’s belly and brushing against his boxers and he loses his train of thought. The muscles of his stomach tense in anticipation and when Sousuke’s warm palm finally cups his dick through the worn-out fabric of his boxers, the relief brings veritable tears to his eyes.

He arches up into the touch with a cry and Sousuke shushes him and moves his palm in little circles, pressing down with just the right amount of pressure to make Rin’s mind blank momentarily in pleasure. He thinks he could come right there, with just Sousuke’s hand on his clothed dick. It’d be embarrassing sure, but he’s pretty sure that Sousuke wouldn’t mind, what with the way he’s drinking in the sight of Rin sprawled out on the bunk, like it’s the best thing he’s seen in a long, long time.

There may’ve been countless other girls who might’ve looked up into Sousuke’s eyes the same wondering way Rin is doing right now, but Rin selfishly hopes that he’s the only one who’s gotten to witness the way his face is so soft and open and adoring.

Sousuke leans down to kiss the crook of his neck and shoulder and bite at it softly and Rin’s eyes close. Sousuke’s hand is kneading at him now and he wonders if this is what sex really is – a heady cocktail of emotion and pleasure, and if it is, he thinks he can understand why his classmates are constantly talking about it in hushed tones in between classes and sneaking their girlfriends into their dorm rooms every weekend.

He’s pulled rudely back into reality when Sousuke’s warm hand slips under his waistband and curls around his dick, and the touch is so electric that he jumps a little. Sousuke chooses that very moment to dip his head and take one of Rin’s nipples into his mouth and Rin’s mouth gapes open in surprised pleasure. Sousuke is jerking him off in painfully slow motions, experimenting with the tightness of his grip, and his mouth is a hot, warm point of suction on his nipple.

He bites at the knuckles of his left hand to smother his increasingly desperate cries and thinks to himself that he’s going to be driven crazy from the pleasure very soon.

“Unghh, Sou-Sousuke.” He bites out, words muffled by his hand, and reaches down to tug insistently at the soft tufts of hair at the back of Sousuke’s head. Sousuke gives his sore, aching nipple one last nip before kissing his way up his chest and throat and then bypassing his mouth to instead lay soft kisses over his cheeks and then his eyelids and forehead. 

Rin’s belly twists when Sousuke twists his hand sharply and starts a renewed, vigorous pace. The sensation of his lightly calloused palms on Rin’s dick is delicious and treading the line of too-much and Rin wants to do something for Sousuke too, instead of just lying there selfishly and accepting whatever pleasure Sousuke is doling out to him, but his hands are trembling and refuse to cooperate.

Sousuke’s dick is a hot, solid shape pressing insistently against his inner thigh and just remembering the size and thickness of it even through his briefs makes his eyelids flutter and his mouth water. He wonders what it’d feel like inside of his mouth, if it’d smell and taste as delicious as the rest of Sousuke does. Wonders if Sousuke would even trust him enough to let Rin do that for him. Sticking his fingers in his mouth is one thing, but his dick? He isn’t sure, but he wants to so badly that saliva begins to pool in his mouth.

Sousuke seems to notice the nervous energy that’s radiating from him, because his hand stills in its motions and he leans down to kiss him slow and languid before tearing his mouth away and looking down at him concernedly.

“Too much? Do you want me to stop?” He murmurs, and Rin shakes his head immediately.

“I want to- I want to do something. Will you let me?” He gets out, voice catching on the words a little awkwardly.

“I’d let you do anything, you know that.” Sousuke replies, laughter in his voice, and eyes warm and curious; that’s all the encouragement Rin needs to push up at Sousuke’s shoulders insistently until he moves up and off of Rin. His hand slips off his dick, and Rin lets out a small noise of loss, but then he thinks about what’s about to come and his dick twitches excitedly.

Rin motions for Sousuke to move to the edge of the bed and then moves to nudge his legs so that they’re hanging off the edge and his feet are resting on the floor. Sousuke’s brows furrow in confusion but he goes along with Rin easily, hair ruffling in the breeze of the desk fan.

When Rin slips off the bed and drops to his knees between Sousuke’s legs in a smooth movement, his eyes widen and he looks disbelievingly down at Rin. Rin tries to smirk back at him, but his heart is thudding in anticipation of Sousuke’s rejection, eyes scanning his face for any signs of discomfort. Sousuke doesn’t look uncomfortable though. His eyelids droop with renewed arousal and he looks down at Rin’s face as if he’s seeing him for the first time, eyes drifting over his features but inevitably returning to his mouth over and over.

“Rin.” His voice is choked and low and _hopeful._ “Are you really okay with this? You don’t have to do anything.”

“Don’t ask stupid questions, Sousuke, you idiot. I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t want to.” He scoffs at him, pushing the hair out of his eyes. The strands stubbornly fall back over his face and Sousuke smiles and reaches down this time to tuck the strands behind his ear, knuckles smoothing over his cheek tenderly afterwards. When he leans back with his palms on the bed and smiles at Rin again, it’s wicked and hungry.

“I’m all yours, then.”

His words makes his heart pound in his chest and just the sight of him, reclined all confident and cocksure on the bed renews the ache in his dick. He leans down to adjust himself in his boxers and squeeze once before tracing fingers up from Sousuke’s calves to his thighs. His touch leaves a trail of goosebumps on Sousuke’s skin and he smiles to himself, thinking that Sousuke might not be as unaffected as he put himself out to be, after all.

When he hooks two fingers on either side of the waistband of his briefs and pulls them down, Sousuke cooperates readily. He lifts his feet and lets Rin slide them off, and when Rin looks up again, he thinks that a thousand teenage girls (and boys) would kill to be where he is now. Sousuke’s dick is bobbing in front of his face, reddened and wet with precum, and the line of his defined abdominals is clearly visible from here. And when Rin lifts his gaze further up, he finds those eyes, those fucking glimmering eyes, staring hypnotized, at him.

He takes a deep breath and leans forward, dropping a kiss on his inner thigh first and then nipping at it gently for good measure. Sousuke groans frustratedly.

“Don’t tease, Rin.”

Rin ignores him and turns his attention to Sousuke’s other thigh, licking at the salty soft skin and inhaling the strangely addictive musk of him there. When Sousuke’s thighs start trembling and his hands come up to Rin’s hair to guide him to where he needed Rin the most, Rin goes along willingly.

He closes his lips over the wet head of Sousuke’s dick and hears his breath hitch violently. He tastes so good, salty and musky and everything Rin had expected him to taste like, and he can help but lap at the slit, moaning as more pre-cum oozes out and dribbles onto his tongue. Sousuke’s ensuing groan is so loud that Rin thinks the broody guy with the glasses from next door is going to come barging in to shut them up.

When he finally gets accustomed to the texture and taste of him, Rin carefully closes his lips over his teeth and moves to take him in a little further. He brings a hand up to grip the part of his him that Rin isn’t taking into his mouth.  And lets his tongue slide out to trace over his dick. Sousuke is so hard in his mouth that he can feel the outline of the veins there and almost feel the thrumming of his blood. Sousuke is panting hard now and making small, almost hurt noises and his hand tangles in Rin’s hair, gripping and letting go repetitively with every slide of Rin’s mouth further onto his dick. Rin keeps going; he can’t get enough of the heavy weight and the salty feel of him in his mouth, and he wonders if he’s doing this right because saliva is collecting in his mouth and dripping down to his chin messily.

He moves forward just an inch more and stops because he doesn’t want to embarrass himself by choking and spluttering unattractively on his very first try at this. Then, he hollows out his cheeks, careful to keep his teeth away from the hot, sensitive skin, and sucks hard. Sousuke’s fingers dig into his scalp and hold him there. Rin doesn’t mind. He’s working on breathing deeply and evenly through his nose, and he’s slowly getting the feel of this.

With each one of Sousuke’s almost shocked moans, he feels a little more powerful, and he licks messily at the precum that’s flowing into his mouth copiously now before beginning to slide his hand up and down the untouched part of his dick. In the midst of coordinating the movements of his hand and mouth though, he slips sideways just a little and a single tooth grazes the sensitive skin of Sousuke’s dick.

Sousuke draws in a sharp intake of breath and Rin recoils, involuntary tears of humiliation building at the corners of his eyes, and his heart drops right to his stomach. He pulls away hastily, careful to purse his lips and keep his teeth out of the way this time. He’s ruined everything, he thinks, and he can’t even bear to lift his head and check if Sousuke’s bleeding.

“I’m so sorry.” He mumbles into his own chest, blinking back the tears and letting his hair fall forward and form a curtain over his eyes. And waits for Sousuke to back away awkwardly.

“What for? Fuck, Rin, why did you stop?” When he looks up confusedly at Sousuke’s non-reaction, he notices that his eyes are almost all pupil again, and that he’s staring at Rin’s mouth almost reverently. His thumb comes down to stroke the puffiness of his lips and slide just the slightest bit into his mouth, and he tilts his head at Rin enquiringly.

“My teeth, didn’t they just-?” Rin looks up at him through his bangs.

“Your teeth? What about them?” He looks distracted though, and his thumb starts tracing over the sharp tips of his incisors again.

Sousuke hadn’t even noticed, Rin thinks, he’d just over-reacted. It feels like a heavy weight has been lifted off his chest and he sighs a little in relief, suckling on the tip of Sousuke’s thumb absently.

“Rin. Your teeth. That is. I won't mind if you use them a little.” Sousuke has fished out his thumb from Rin’s mouth and he’s scratching the back of his neck now, sounding almost embarrassed. That’s all it takes for Rin to pick up on the real issue at hand.

He flashes a naughty smile at Sousuke, letting a couple of aforementioned teeth show.

“Like my teeth quite a bit, do you?”

Sousuke’s cheeks flush just barely and Rin wants to save the image of him right at this moment into the archive of his mind, wants to remember how vulnerable and devastatingly attractive he looks, with his nose scrunched up and mussed hair drooping into his eyes. His smile softens, and he pats his thigh to get his attention again.

“Go on.” He tells him, moving forward to position his mouth right in front of his dick again and then slackens his jaw just a little. “Do what you want.”

Sousuke blinks at him for a few seconds before comprehension passes over his face and then he’s smiling to himself. He cups Rin’s jaw with a hand and brings his face forward until his dick is nudging Rin’s parted lips. He grips his dick with the fingers of his free hand and bumps the head of it against Rin’s lower lip, smearing pre-cum all over it until it begins to slide down to his chin. Rin keeps his eyes locked on Sousuke’s face this time, and he watches as it flushes even more and as his breaths start coming quicker.

When Sousuke nudges up against his upper lip this time, he playfully swipes his tongue out to lave over him in a kitten lick. Sousuke jerks and then he’s using his thumb to ease his jaw open a little more and slipping his dick in, inch by inch. Rin notices that the skin at the bottom of his dick scrapes just barely over his teeth, but the dark, excited look in his eyes tells him all he needs to know. He doesn’t mind. He _likes_ it.

Sousuke moves his palm from his jaw to the back of his head and Rin misses the warmth immediately. He guides Rin forward onto his dick until about half of it has slid in, and then pulls him back with a gentle grip. He strokes his hair gently and gives Rin a questioning look in spite of the way he’s clearly itching to just get on with it, and Rin's chest feels warm.

He just nods at him a little awkwardly and then hollows his cheeks again. When Sousuke pulls him forward, he sucks hard and gives as good as he gets. He swipes his tongue over the head of his dick, unable to get enough of Sousuke’s taste, the way he smells, his gentle touch in his hair, so at odds with the way he’s pushing himself almost roughly into Rin’s mouth. His knees are aching from being braced on the cold, hard tiles, but it’s all secondary to the way Sousuke’s moans are beginning to echo in the room, and how the air around them has become heated and almost oppressive.

They’ve established a steady rhythm now and Sousuke brings his other hand over to Rin’s face. When he ghosts it over Rin’s cheek and presses it into the smooth skin there to feel himself inside, Rin’s stomach leaps and his neglected dick stirs in interest. Sousuke’s thumb continues rubbing over the shape of his dick through Rin’s cheek almost fascinatedly, and it’s absolutely filthy: Rin’s hand slides down under his boxers to his own dick and he squeezes himself in sympathy before trying to jerk himself off in unsteady motions 

It doesn’t work, mostly because he’s too distracted by the way Sousuke is thrusting deeper and deeper into his mouth now, and how the head of his dick almost hits the back of his throat. He’s definitely not going to be able to do any of that deep-throating stuff that he’d come across once while using Nitori’s laptop (he doesn’t even know why he’d continued watching after he’d maximized that innocuous window and found a video paused on the shot of a blonde kneeling in front of an frighteningly buff older man), he knows his limits very well. But he lets Sousuke do as he pleases, lapping at him every time his dick comes into contact with his tongue.

Then, Sousuke pauses. He tugs at Rin’s hair gently and eases his mouth off his dick, before tugging him upwards and back onto the bed. Rin’s half disappointed and half relieved, because he’d wanted to see the look on Sousuke’s face as he came inside his mouth, but his jaw is also sore and aching and it was honestly becoming a little painful to keep his mouth stretched open like that for much longer.

Sousuke easily peels his ratty boxers off and tosses them to the side before pushing Rin further onto the bed and bracing himself over him.  He leans down to kiss him again, and Rin turns his mouth away, because he’d just been sucking his dick, and that couldn’t possibly be what Sousuke wanted, could it? Sousuke follows his mouth with his own insistently though, until Rin gives in and lets him slide his tongue in.

Sousuke pulls away.

“Fuck.” He murmurs. “You taste like me.”

He leans in again until their mouths are just a hair’s breadth away from each other, but hesitates and pulls away suddenly. This time, Rin’s the one who leans up and follows his lips. Sousuke grins at him easily, and he flushes in response.

“Hold on. Hold on, just need to get something.” He’s vaulting himself off the bed and and heading right for his desk drawers.

Get something? Rin swallows nervously and eyes the condom wrapper that’s been pushed to the corner of his bed now. He wants to, he really does, but he isn’t entirely sure if he’s ready for that step just yet. Will Sousuke be doing it to him? Or perhaps he’d let Rin take the reigns? Either way, Rin thinks that this is all moving a bit too soon, and he might just have a meltdown in the midst of it all, if it continues at this pace.

He brings his hand down to casually stroke himself, all the while eyeing the attractive flexing of muscles in Sousuke’s lower back and bare ass as he bends to scoop something out from his third drawer. He licks his lips because they’ve suddenly gone dry, and tastes the mildly bitter tang of Sousuke’s precum. If he’d thought that Sousuke had looked good from the back, he thinks that Sousuke from the front deserves to be on the cover page of a best-selling skin mag. His stomach muscles clench and unclench as he strides towards Rin, and the bulkiness of his shoulders is even more obvious now that they're bare and gleaming in the yellow light.

When he slides onto the bed and nuzzles into Rin’s stomach playfully, Rin laughs at the unexpectedly ticklish sensation, and then kicks at Sousuke’s chest until he stops and moves up his body to kiss him. Rin notices though, when he drops a small tube to the side so as to to cup his jaw properly and deepen the kiss. He tries to get the words out through the kiss.

“Mphh thah?”

Sousuke pulls away to look at him amusedly.

“What was that?”

“I asked you what that was, idiot!” He gestures with a thumb to the innocuous looking white tube.

“Oh, that. That’s lube.”

The way he says it is so casual that he might as well be mentioning that he’d had orange juice and eggs for breakfast.

“L-lube?”

Sousuke must have caught the wary look in his eyes, because he smiles at him reassuringly and moves in to kiss his cheek.

“Don’t worry, we’re not getting into _that_ yet, but..” He stops and aims an unsure look at Rin. “Rin, will _you_ let _me_ try something this time?”

Fair’s fair, Rin supposes, and nods a little cautiously. Sousuke smiles at him, clearly relieved, and Rin realizes that he’s smiled more times in the past hour than he has in the last couple of weeks. Smiled at _Rin_. Just the thought of it makes Rin feel absurdly pleased.

Sousuke kisses his neck and brings his hand down to part Rin’s thighs, brushing his palm lightly over his erection. Rin squeezes them closer together instinctively, but relaxes when he strokes at them gently and eventually lets them fall apart around Sousuke’s hips.

When Rin hears the sound of the tube’s lid being uncapped though, he stiffens. Sousuke squeezes some of the clear gel onto his fingers and palms and rubs them together with a shlick sound. His palms are gleaming when he reaches towards Rin’s thighs and Rin curls into himself a little.

Sousuke pauses and shakes his head.

“Don’t worry, if you don’t like it, we can stop.” His voice is low and gentle.

His palms land on the inside of his thighs, and Rin shivers when the coolness of the gel comes into contact with the heated skin there. He’s confused now, because Sousuke isn’t reaching any further up, instead just rubbing the slick onto both of his inner thighs and then reaching to squeeze some more of the lube onto his palms.

He turns a confused look at Sousuke, but he isn’t looking back at him. When Sousuke finishes smearing more of the slick into the skin of thighs, he casually brings a slippery palm up to wrap around Rin’s dick, squeezing playfully once before letting go, and Rin groans at the feeling.

Sousuke is stroking himself with a lubed up palm now, and Rin watches hungrily as the head of his dick disappears into his fist and then reappears. His face twists in pleasure and Rin wants to stop him, wants to take over and be the reason for that needy expression, but then Sousuke stops, and moves forward and into the cradle of Rin’s thighs.

He slides his dick into the tiny space between his inner thighs and then brings his slick palms outwards to push his thighs together, trapping his dick between them. And _oh._ Rin thinks he understands what’s going on now, and his own dick jolts when he feels Sousuke’s erection twitch against his sensitive skin, rigid and burning hot.

He squeezes his thighs together just a little tighter and revels in Sousuke’s tiny sound of pleasure. Then, Sousuke leans over him, bracing his elbows by Rin’s sides, and wraps a warm, slick hand around his dick.

He thrusts shallowly into the space between Rin’s thighs and the slide is smooth and hot and not at all awkward like Rin had expected it to be. Must be all that lube, he thinks. Sousuke’s mouth is open a little in pleasure and his eyes find Rin’s own.

“That.” He sighs, draws back and pushes himself into the cradle of Rin’s thighs again. “That feels so good.”

Rin can feel overwhelming heat pooling in his own lower belly at the sensation, and when Sousuke’s hand starts working faster on his dick, he thinks he’s not going to last.

Then Sousuke’s dick slides just a little further and brushes up against the cleft of his ass first and then catches on his hole. Both of them freeze, and Rin’s mind goes blank at how terribly erotic the feeling is. Sousuke must be in the same state of mind because he doesn’t draw back, just nudges forward just a little more till the head of his dick just barely nudges in. Rin can’t help the little whimper from escaping. He wants, wants it so much.

And then, Sousuke’s face clears up again, and he draws back. His thrusts get steadily more erratic and the slip slide of his dick against the slick skin of Rin’s thighs elicits the most depraved sounds. Rin feels more wetness seep into the skin of his thighs and he knows that Sousuke is close.

When Sousuke twists his hand on the downward stroke on Rin’s dick, his toes curl and then he’s coming all over his stomach, some of the sticky whiteness splashing onto his chest and Sousuke’s abdomen. Sousuke stills for just a second to stare at the debauched mess that Rin knows he must look like now. And then he brings his palms to either sides of Rin’s thighs and presses them together so that they’re tight around his erection, and then lets himself go, slipping and sliding himself into the increasingly slippery space with a primal sort of desperation.

Rin’s already come and his fingers and toes tingle satisfyingly, but the slide of Sousuke’s dick is an almost branding heat against the cooling skin of his inner thighs, and he feels a tiny surge of renewed arousal.

Just a few seconds later, he feels warm wetness splash onto his thighs and ass and Sousuke is leaning in to kiss his stomach and then his chest. Rin can feel his dick twitching between his thighs still, and the sticky warmth steadily spreads until it’s seeped over the entirety of his inner thighs. Rin squeezes his thighs together to hear the filthy sound that ensues and then flushes when Sousuke groans uncomfortably. The slick heat and pressure between his thighs had probably become too much now that he’d come.

He reluctantly parts his thighs and lets Sousuke’s dick slip free and when he brings them back together, they’re sticky and wet and drag against each other. His eyes widen at the sensation and he does it once more, only to find some of the sticky wetness dripping down onto his sheets. His freshly laundered sheets, he remembers a little too belatedly.

“Oh fuck, my sheets.” His voice, probably a little too loud and frantic, shakes Sousuke out of his orgasm-induced stupor and he lifts his head up from where he’d been resting it on Rin’s chest.

“Hmm?” He asks, eyes drooping sleepily.

“My fucking sheets, I just washed them.”

Sousuke looks down to where his gaze is, and Rin’s face turns hot with mortification when he realizes that Sousuke is watching his own come slipping down his inner thighs and slowly drip-dripping onto the sheets. His eyes darken a little and he licks his lips once before meeting Rin’s eyes again.

“I can fix that.” He says, and that’s all the warning Rin gets before Sousuke is sliding down his body again until his face is in level with Rin’s crotch. His tongue sweeps out to lick at the white smeared all over his inner thighs, and Rin has to muffle a shocked cry with the back of his hand. Sousuke just continues lapping at the stickiness until Rin feels the skin there becoming wet with his saliva.

Sousuke lifts his eyes to peer at Rin through the tufts of his fringe and the look in his blue eyes, the way his fingers spread his thighs a little further apart and how his tongue comes out to lap teasingly at Rin’s entrance: it’s a deadly combination and Rin’s hands clench into the bedsheets desperately.

Sousuke moves back down then though, and laps up a last splattering of white on his thighs before he lifts his mouth up and off his skin. He sighs and licks his lips like a cat that's gotten its cream before inching up the bed, kissing Rin chastely on the mouth and flopping down beside him bonelessly. Sousuke’s arm wedges between Rin’s head and the mattress comfortably and he taps out a lazy rhythm on his shoulder with his fingers as they both stare at the ceiling of the bunker bed blankly, still coming down from their highs.

After a few seconds, Rin chances a glance to his right and finds Sousuke staring right back at him.

“What?” He means to snap, but he’s way too mellow now for that, and it just comes out sounding vaguely curious.

“Nothing.” Sousuke hums and moves closer until they’re nose to nose. Rin almost goes cross-eyed trying to meet his gaze and Sousuke snorts in amusement.

“Oi.” Rin says, and when Sousuke reaches up to flick him on the forehead, he brings his foot back and aims a kick at his midsection with just the right amount of force.

Sousuke slides right off the mattress with a surprised yelp.

“Climb up and sleep on your own fucking bed.” He calls out, lips twitching into a little smirk when he hears Sousuke’s answering groan of discomfort. Then, he groans one more time and goes completely silent.

“Oi, stop that, you’re gonna catch a cold if you lie on the floor.” There’s no answer.

“Sousuke.” Silence.

He’s getting worried now and he calls his name once more for good measure.When there’s still no reply from Sousuke, his heart starts thudding in his chest and he wonders if he’d hit his head on the floor and was lying there with a concussion, and Rin had been poking fun at an injured man all this while.

He scrambles up onto his hands and knees and quickly leans over the bed to take a look. Sousuke’s eyes snap open right then, and it’s too late now, he'd been such an idiot, because he’s reaching up and pulling Rin down by his upper arms, and Rin goes hurtling out of the soft mattress with a betrayed squeak of his own, only to land half on the cold, disgusting floor and half on Sousuke’s broad chest.

Their skin sticks together disgustingly at every point of contact and when Rin tries to pull away, Sousuke just laughs delightedly and pulls him back into his arms, crushing him to his body in a vice grip.

“Gotcha.” He whispers into Rin’s ear and Rin growls low in his throat.

“You bastard!”  He twists, bites lightly into the meat of his chest and is rewarded by a surprised noise and the arms loosening around him. He takes the chance to rip away and fling himself onto his mattress again, leaving Sousuke spread eagle on the cold floor.

“You little shit.” He mutters, just loud enough for the cretin on the floor to hear, and Sousuke’s resulting laugh makes his own lips twitch.

He curls up on his side, and when a few minutes later, a warm body slides up behind him, he just brings his own hand over the one that comes to rest on his belly and presses back into the warmth. Sousuke’s even breaths fall on the back of his neck comfortingly and Rin can tell when he’s beginning to doze off. His own eyelids are beginning to droop.

“Just this once.” He murmurs to himself. “You can sleep here just this once.”

Sousuke hums behind him in sleepy agreement, and Rin somehow knows this is definitely not going to be the last time they’re going to end up here. He hides his content smile in the sheets and lets himself drift off to the sound of Sousuke’s sleepy sighs, the smell of lemon and the comforting warmth all around him.


End file.
